Cardiff City boss Malky Mackay admits the integration of Kim Bo-Kyung into British football is going to be a “slow-burn” process.

Cardiff City boss Malky Mackay admits the integration of Kim Bo-Kyung into British football is going to be a “slow-burn” process.

The 23-year-old South Korean has made 12 appearances since his £2m summer move from Japanese football and is beginning to establish himself in a Bluebirds side which secured a record-breaking 10th home league win on the bounce against Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday.

Cardiff moved back to the top of the table and are on their best run of the season so far with 13 points from the last 15 on offer, Kim starting all of those games.

“He is picking up the intensity of Championship football, beginning to understand what the whole league is about,” said Mackay.

“That’s great to see because technically he is a lovely footballer.

“The Championship is a league that players must get to grips with in their head as well as physically, they must understand the nature of it.

“Kimbo has come from a different culture but he has settled in well.

“Every week he is speaking more and more English, he is having lessons and they are going well.

“It was always going to be a slow-burn process. We knew we were bringing a player with great potential to our club.

“He came from the other side of the world, but we were always prepared to give him the time needed and he has done really well.”

If Mackay has been left pleased with the progress of his midfielder – who signed a three-year deal after arriving from Cerezo Osaka – on the pitch, he accepts the South Korean international was still coming to terms with cultural differences off the pitch.

“I sat with Kimbo and his interpreter recently for an hour,” he said.

“I asked about his family, the change in culture he has experienced, what the football was like when he played in Korea and Japan.

“We sat and chatted about everything and anything.”

Mackay revealed that he had done his homework on Kim even before he had made of one the most ambitious signings in Cardiff’s history.

The Bluebirds’ boss and his head of recruitment, Iain Moody, checked into all aspects of bringing in a young Asian player, including making contact with Premier League giants Manchester United and Championship rivals Bolton Wanderers.

“We talked to Manchester United (about Ji-Sung Park) and Bolton Wanderers (Lee Chung-Yong) about how they coped with the change,” said Mackay.

“Those players who have already played somewhere else, away from Korea, seem to settle quicker.

“And Kim did that by playing for Cerezo Osaka in Japan.

“South Koreans are a workmanlike race of people who embrace hard work, they have a discipline attached to their life.

“So I’m not surprised that Kim has blended into our group really well.”

Close friend Ki Sung-Yueng, a former Celtic player who is now starring in the Swansea City midfield, has also helped Kim ease into his new life in South Wales.

The two pals meet on a regular basis and Mackay said: “They catch up with each now and again, meeting quietly in the Bridgend or Port Talbot areas.”

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